The conference meets in Sèvres (south-west of Paris) every four to six years. Initially it was only concerned with the kilogram and the metre, but in 1921 the scope of the treaty was extended to accommodate all physical measurements and hence all aspects of the metric system. In 1960 the 11th CGPM approved the Système International d'Unités, usually known as "SI".

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On 20 May 1875 an international treaty known as the Convention du Mètre (Metre Convention)[1] was signed by 17 states. This treaty established the following organisations to conduct international activities relating to a uniform system for measurements:[2]

Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), a permanent laboratory and world centre of scientific metrology, the activities of which include the establishment of the basic standards and scales of the principal physical quantities and maintenance of the international prototype standards.

The CGPM acts on behalf of the governments of its members. In so doing, it appoints members to the CIPM, receives reports from the CIPM which it passes on to the governments and national laboratories on member states, examines and where appropriate approves proposals from the CIPM in respect of changes to the International System of Units (SI), approves the budget for the BIPM (over €10 million in 2012) and it decides all major issues concerning the organization and development of the BIPM.[3][4]

The CGPM recognises two classes of membership - full membership for those states that wish to participate in the activities of the BIPM and associate membership for those countries or economies[Note 1] that only wish to participate in the MRA program. Associate members have observer status at the CGPM. Since all formal liaison between the convention organisations and national governments is handled by the member state's ambassador to France,[Note 2] it is implicit that member states must have diplomatic relations with France,[5] though during both world wars, nations that were at war with France retained their membership of the CGPM.[6] The opening session of each CGPM is chaired by the French foreign minister and subsequent sessions by the Président de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris.[7]

Of the twenty countries that attended the Conference of the Metre in 1875, representatives of seventeen signed the convention on 20 May 1875.[Note 3] In April 1884 HJ Chaney, Warden of Standards in London unofficially contacted the BIPM inquiring whether the BIPM would calibrate some metre standards that had been manufactured in the United Kingdom. Broch, director of the BIPM replied that he was not authorised to perform any such calibrations for non-member states. On 17 September 1884, the British Government signed the convention on behalf of the United Kingdom.[8] This number grew to 21 in 1900, 32 in 1950, and 49 in 2001. As of 7 August 2013[update], there are 55 Member States and 38 Associate States and Economies of the General Conference (with year of partnership in parentheses):[9]

The litre was redefined as volume of 1 kg of water. Clarified that kilograms are units of mass, "standard weight" defined, standard acceleration of gravity defined endorsing use of grams force and making them well-defined.

The ampere, bar, coulomb, farad, henry, joule, newton, ohm, volt, watt, weber were defined. The degree Celsius was selected from three names in use as the name of the unit of temperature. The symbol l (lowercase L) was adopted as symbol for litre. Both the comma and dot on a line are accepted as decimal marker symbols. Symbols for the stere and second changed [2]. The universal return to the Long Scale numbering system was proposed but not adopted.

The second was redefined as duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom at a temperature of 0 K. The Degree Kelvin renamed kelvin and the candela redefined.

A comma or a dot on a line are reaffirmed as decimal marker symbols, and not as grouping symbols in order to facilitate reading; "numbers may be divided in groups of three in order to facilitate reading; neither dots nor commas are ever inserted in the spaces between groups".[11]

Redefining the kilogram in relation to the Planck constant was discussed but not decided on. Progress towards realising the redefinition has been noted. However, it was concluded that the data did not yet appear to be sufficiently robust. Continued effort on improving the data has been encouraged, such that a resolution that would replace the current definition with the revised definition can be adopted at the 26th meeting.